The amazing Bugattis of the Schlumpf Collection

A whole line up of amazing Bugattis with a T37A in the foreground.

My main reason for visiting the Cité de l'Automobile museum in Mulhouse, France last April was to see the amazing collection of over 100 Bugattis that the Schlumpf brothers amassed between the nineteen forties and the nineteen seventies.  They had made their money from the textile business and used much of to acquire their huge automobile collection.  At the time Bugattis were not that expensive and in one deal the brother acquired a collection of 30 Bugattis for about $100,000.   Nowadays this collection is to all intents and purposes priceless.  As these few pictures show, there is something for every Bugatti fan from racing cars to road going sports cars to touring cars.  As with most museums the photos don't really do the collection justice.

Two pictures in the museum.  On the left Ettore Bugatti.  On the right Fritz Schlumpf.

The Bugatti T35B that Fritz Schlumpf raced in hill climbs.

One of the first racing Bugattis, a T13.  They are often called Brescia Bugattis because T13s took the first four places in the Voiturette race in that city accompanying the 1921 Italian GP.  The car above was mainly raced in Germany.

A 1938 Bugatti T57SC Cabriolet.   An 8 cylinder 3.2 litre road going sports car with a body coach-built by Van Vooren near Pris.   

One of the tank shaped streamlined Bugatti T32s that competed in the 1923 French GP.  One came third driven by Friderich but was beaten by the two Sunbeams.

Unusual Bugatti T35B 

1914 Bugatti T17 Torpedo.  The T17 was a more spacious version of the T13 and this one has mahogany boat shaped coachwork.

The unsuccessful Bugatti T251 that appeared only once in the 1956 French GP at Rems driven by Maurice Trintignant.  It was the last of the Grand Prix Bugattis and was produced by Roland Bugatti after Ettore's death.

1929 Bugatti T41 Royale.  A large luxury car only seven were made, one three were sold at the time and only six exist today.

Bugatti T51.  The T51 was the successor to the T35 and although not as successful it did achieve a number of important Grand Prix victories including that of Varzi versus Nuvolari's Alfa Romeo Monza in 1933.

A Bugatti being demonstrated on  the little track at the side of the museum.

1936 Bugatti T57SC Atalante.

1925 Bugatti T30 Torpedo.

1932 Bugatti T51A.  This was the last Grand Prix Bugatti sold to privateers.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

1928 Bugatti T40 touring car.  A successful model as nearly 800 T40s were built.

Bugatti T57S.

Ten Fabulous French Racing Cars at the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse.

1949 Talbot-Lago 26C

There are so many fabulous French racing cars in the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse France.  Amazingly, I am not even including the wonderful Bugatti's in this statement!    There is something for everyone, no matter which era you are interested in.  Here are ten or so of my favourites:

1949 Talbot-Lago 26C
The Talbot-Lago Formula One cars that raced in the late forties and early fifties have always been one of my favourites.  They complied with the first ever F1 rules and had six cylinder 4.5 litre engines.  They were heavy but had the advantage of reliability and good fuel consumption that meant less pit stops.  This meant that they had a number of famous GP victories including the 1949 Belgian Grand Prix (with Louis Rosier driving) and the 1949 French Grand Prix (with Louis Chiron driving). After the World Championship started in 1950 they were still able to do well and Louis Rosier finished third in the 1950 Swiss and Belgian GP.  Even in 1951 they still scored World Championship points at the Belgian GP.  As well as the much raced example shown here that competed in 23 Grand Prix, the museum also has a very original un-raced version.

1978 Renault Alpine A442

1978 Renault Alpine A442

The Renault Alpine A442B is a famous car as it achieved Renault's ambition to win the Le Mans 24 Hours race in 1978.   Renault entered four cars and the one in the museum is an A442A (chassis A4422), the one driven by Jean-Pierre Jarier and Derek Bell that retired after 162 laps of Le Mans.  It had a 2 litre turbo charged V6 engine.  This particular chassis took second place at Monza and Dijon-Prenois in these 1976 World Sportscar Championship races.

1954 Gordini 20S

1954 Gordini 20S
This car was not the most successful creation of Amédée Gordini but is still a beautiful sports racing car.  This two seater car one has a 2.5 litre six cylinder engine.  However, these cars competed in the major sports car races of the mid-fifties such as the le Mans 24 hours and Mille-Miglia.

1962 Panhard-Levassor CD

1962 Panhard-Levassor CD Dyna Coupé
This car has a great history as the little 702cc car won the Index of Performance at the Le Mans 24 hours in 1962.  It was driven by André Guilhaudin and Alain Bertaud and they won in a very close finish with a Bonnet D-Jet on the same lap.  It also won its class and finished 16th overall.   Its average speed for the race was nearly 89mph and its fastest lap was nearly 100mph.  Not bad for such a small engined car!

1908 Panhard-Levassor and 1902 Serpollet.

1908 Panhard-Levassor
This two seater racing car was one of the last that the pioneering company Panhard-Levassor built for Grand Prix racing. It entered the 1908 French GP at Dieppe.  In the first ever fatality in GP racing (ignoring the city to city races later renamed as GP) both the driver, Henri Cissac, and riding mechanic, Jules Schaube, died when the car burst a tyre and rolled over.

1902 Serpollet Type H
Leon Serpollet, backed by the American Frank Gardner, entered seven of these cars in the famous and tragic 1903 Paris-Madrid race.  All cars were still going when the race was stopped in Bordeaux because of all of the fatalities.  The two best cars had averaged 83 kph.    Unusually, these cars were powered by steam engines and rather streamlined!   This is the only surviving example in the world.

1952 Gordini T16

1952 Gordini T16
This F2 Grand Prix car was relatively competitive during the 1952 World Championship season driven by such as Jean Behra, Robert Manzon and others.  The latter did well in beating all but the dominant Ferraris to finish third in Belgium and fourth in France.

1904 Mathis Hermes-Simplex

1904 Mathis Hermers-Simplex
This car has a Bugatti connection as Ettore Bugatti designed this car and worked with Emile Mathis to produce this four cylinder 12 litre racing car of 1904.  It was a light and powerful car that also looked good.

1921 Ballot 3-8 LC

1921 Ballot 3-8 LC

This Ballot was rather successful as it took the first two places in the1921 Italian GP, came second in the 1921 French GP and finished third in the 1922 Indianapolis 500.   The winner of the Italian GP was Jules Goux in this 3 litre eight cylinder car.  Other drivers of this car included the great American driver Ralph de Palma.

1908 Sizaire-Naudin 12HP

1908 Sizaire-Naudin 12HP
This single cylinder 1.5 litre car won many times in early voiturette races, such as the Coupe l'Auto, for smaller engined cars.  One of its features was the unusual front suspension seen clearly in the picture above.   Voiturette racing flourished in the years after the decline of city to city racing.  The Coupe l'Auto ran on a road course around Rambouillet in 1906 and 1907 before moving to Compiègne in 1908.  All three races were won by Sizaire-Naudin cars. Georges Sizaire as a driver won the 1906 race whilst Louis Naudin as a driver won the 1907 and 1908 races.

2009 & 2010 Renault F1 cars

2009 Renault R29 F1
This car was driven in 2009 by Fernando Alonso Nelson Piquet Jnr and Romain Grosjean.  Its best race was in Singapore where Alonso finished on the 3rd step of the podium and took fastest lap.  Renault finished 8th in the constructors championship.  It was a V8 engined car.  The No.7 car was driven by Alonso.

2010 Renault R30 F1
This car was driven by Roberto Kubica and Vitaly Petrov.  Kubica came 3rd in both Monaco and Belgium.  Renault finished fifth in the constructor's championship.  The No.11 car was driven by Kubica.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

Ten surprising cars to see at the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse.

Two Benetton Formula One cars

The Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse France is the National Automobile Museum of France and is based around the famous collection of Bugatti vehicles by the Schlumpf brothers,  Thus I was expecting to see lots of Bugattis and other French cars.  What I got was a lot more!    Here are ten surprising parts of the collection that I hadn't expected to see.  All of the pictures are those that I took during my visit at Easter in April 2019.

1 & 2. Benetton Formula One Cars.
I hadn't expected to see relatively modern Formula One cars on display and especially not ones with little association to France.  Above you can see two lovely example.
The one nearest the camera is a 1993 Camel Benetton B193-01 with Ford Cosworth V8 engine.  This car took part in the first four World Championship Grand Prix of 1993 driven by Ricardo Patrese and Michael Schumacher.  The B193 took a single win with Schumacher winning in Portugal.
The one furthest from the camera is a Camel Benetton B191-02 with Ford Cosworth V8 engine. This car took part in the 1991 Grand Prix Season.  Michael Schumacher made his debut in one of these cars at the 1991 Belgian GP.   Nelson Piquet took the B191's only win and his 23rd and final win in the 1991 Canadian GP.

1948 Cisitalia D46.

3. 1948 Cisitalia D46 Monoplace.
Cisitalia was an Italian marque founded by Pierre Dusio that existed just after the Second World War.   They produced vehicles based on Fiat or other mass produced car parts, both single seaters and sports cars.  The D46 was their first car and was based on parts from the famous Fiat 500 Topolino.  A car very popular with Italian amateur drivers, Tazio Nuvolari, Alberto Ascari and Piero Taruffi also raced them.  The Cisitalia company eventually became bankrupt and Carlo Abarth bought the assets to start his famous company.

1986 Ford Coupé RS200 rally car.

4. 1986 Ford Coupé RS200 rally car.
This mid-engined 4wd rally car was produced for Group B but development issues and the demise of Group B meant that it had a rather short and unsuccessful rally career.  In fact a tragic accident in which a RS200 was involved was a main factor in the FIA ending Group B rally cars.  It did however have some success as a rallycross car.   This car appears to be the Stig Blomqvist / Bruno Berglund 1986 car that had a couple of minor wins.

1934 Standard-Swallow SS1

5. 1934 Standard-Swallow SS1
This English car can be regarded as a predecessor of the Jaguar marque as William Lyons was involved with both projects and in 1945 SS cars changed its name to Jaguar.  For the SS1, Standard built the chassis and engine and Swallow was the coach builder of the body.

1936 Maserati 1.5l litre GP Monoplace

6. 1936 Maserati 1.5 litre GP Monoplace.
This Swiss owned Maserati had twenty years of competition history during which time it was continuously updated and improved.  A rather unusual looking car because of the developments.

1929 Mercedes-Benz Sport 38 / 250 SS 

7. 1929 Mercedes-Benz Sport 38 / 250 Super Sport
It might surprise some to know that this Mercedes-Benz was designed by Ferdinand Porsche.  Competition versions of this achieved fame when driven by the great Rudolf Caracciola.  This is perhaps one of the greatest vintage sports cars.

1963 Ferrari 156B F1 

8. 1963 Ferrari 156B F1
This is the car in which  Lorenzo Bandini won his only World Championship GP.  It was the 1964 Austrian GP and this car survived the bumpy Zeltweg airfield circuit to win.  The car behind is Jo Siffert's Lotus 24.

1937 Mercedes-Benz W125 GP car.

9. 1937 Mercedes-Benz W125 GP car.
Driven by Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchistch and Herrmann Lang this car achieved a number of victories.  Caracciola became European Champion in the W125.  A very significant pre-war car.  The car behind the Mercedes is a 1938 2 seater Bugatti sports racing car, a T59/50B.

1953 Alfa Romeo C52

10. 1953 Alfa Romeo C52.
A member of the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante or Flying Saucer family, this car was converted to a more conventional body work.  It raced in period and has a 2 litre engine.  A very rare car!   This particular car is sometimes called " Fianchi Stretti" or narrow hips..This car competed in the 1953 Mille Miglia and many other events as a private entry.  The Schlumpf brothers bought the car in 1963.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

Many other surprising cars to see including some Lotuses.

37ème Rallye Régional du Médoc, 2019

The Citröen DS3 of early leaders of Fréderic Roussel and Séverin Buttiaux.

My final blog post on the 2019 Rallye du Médoc below, covers the modern rally cars.  There was a large entry of cars in this category for this French regional rally and about 92 cars started and 58 finished the rally.  I concentrated on getting some “atmosphere” shots of the rally rather than trying to compete with the media and their action shots where better access or some local knowledge is required.  I thus attended the verifications, took photos in the Parc Femé to show off the setting in Lesparre-Medoc, took photos on Saturday night as the cars went off for the night stages, took photos on Sunday on the road sections and also captured a few shots on one of the special stages.  Overall, I managed to get a variety of shots to capture some of the essence of the rally.  Nice to see a relatively young team win the rally, and also a nice variety of cars.  All shots below in order that the cars finished and with those that retired at the end:

The winning Citröen C3 of Sam Taveneau and Sébastien Pogut.

The Skoda Fabia that finished second after some good stages on Sunday in the hands of Anthony Faucher and Cédric Foubert.

Yves Pezzutti and Marie-Noëlle Ratier in their Skoda Fabia that finished third.

A strong Sunday afternoon performance saw Francois Hirigoyen and Pierre Goy finish fourth in their Ford Fiesta.

Damp weather in the vines on the third stage.   The sixth placed Renault Clio of Johnny Laroche and Damien Augustin.

The seventh placed Peugeot 208 on the third stage.

The Citröen Saxo VTS that finish eleventh.

The fifteenth placed Citroen Saxo.

The Renault Clio on the left finished 16th.  The Renault Clio III on the right retired.

This Ford Fiesta finished seventeenth.

The 29th placed Citröen C2

This Nissan 350Z finished 32nd.

In 33rd place was this Opel Speedster.

The 34th placed Peugeot 106.

The 36th placed Citroen Saxo.

In 46th position was this Peugeot 205.

The 49th placed Audi TT 180

The Peugot 106 in 52nd place.

Car No.51, a Renault Clio, finished 54th.

Last of the finishers in 58th place was the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth..

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

The Mitisubishi Lancer Evo IX of Marty/Thamalet.

Opel Astra.

Renault 5 GT Turbo in the verifications tent.

A Renault Clio in the rain.